The Best Ever Vegan Sugar Cookies

and if they're not the best ever - they're certainly way better than the other best ever vegan sugar cookies!





PERFECT VEGAN SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE
This makes about 36 cookies. We made two batches.

1 cup margarine 3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder
2 whole egg replacements (Ener-G) 1/4 cup tofu cream cheese (Tofutti)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar. Stir in the egg replacements and vanilla. Gradually add the flour, baking powder and tofu cream cheese. You may have to use your hands at this point to finish the mixing. Form the dough into a long loaf and wrap in cellophane. Refrigerate for a couple hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease the cookie sheets or use a non-stick foil.
3. On a lightly floured surface (we taped down a sheet of non-stick foil to our countertop instead), roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place about 1 inch apart cookie on sheets.
4. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottoms and edges just start to get light brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

Sugar Cookies - Part 2

can you tell the difference?


What more could I possibly have to say about sugar cookies you're, no doubt, wondering. Hmmm...now that I think about it, there are a few things. To begin with, it hit me this morning that my very FIRST batch of sugar cookies was made long before my days at the UA, when I was about ten years old. Keep in mind that I did NOT go in for baking, as a rule. My mother was Queen of the Kitchen and seldom desired that anyone come in and usurp her role. And then there was me -bookworm, introvert, and more than happy to have a reason to stay far away from anything culinary.

The reason I decided to bake that first batch of sugar cookies was purely philanthropic. While I don't even remember much about this old couple now, I do know that an elderly husband and wife lived on the street in back of us and, for whatever reason, I decided to show my love for them by baking them cookies. I have no idea what possessed me to start with a rolled, stamped cookie! It most certainly wasn't because they were a staple in my home OR because we had all the necessary gadgets to complete the experience. Not having access to cookie cutters, I used a drinking glass to cut round circles and then frosted those circles with a simple icing.

I can only imagine how awful my plate of sugar cookies must have tasted but, in true kindly old people fashion, both husband and wife raved over my offering, as though it was the finest delicacy they had ever had in their lives. And, looking back with adult perspective - maybe they were just happy for the attentions of a little girl who thought them to be the nicest folks around. Anything cooked with a healthy dose of love, attention, and admiration probably winds up tasting pretty fine.

That's my digression of the morning. I actually wrote this post to talk about Round Two of Cookie Baking for Christmas 2010. I couldn't very well leave out my newly vegan child so, after searches on the internet, I was able to whip up a batch of vegan cookies for Brian. The first search yielded a recipe heralded as best ever - it wasn't. Never trust a recipe that doesn't allow for reader comments. (Except mine.) I knew the minute I made up the dough that something was very wrong. There was no way the gooey, sloppy mess created was ever going to be firm enough to roll out for sugar cookies. It looked more like that weird stuff my kids used to want me to buy for them - flurp? Flarp? Runny play-dough?

Fortunately, Emily arrived and searched out some of her more tried and true cooking blogs, coming up with another variation - ironically enough, also billed as the best vegan sugar cookie ever. I don't know if the cookies live up to their press but I can say the dough sure looked and worked more like regular sugar cookie dough.

Brian wound up with his own batch of Stoops Christmas sugar cookies. Both he and Emily say they taste fine. In fact, Brian proposes a blind taste test wherein we substitute some vegan variety for the regular sugar cookies here in this house and then feed them to my mother-in-law. She loves my sugar cookies and says it can't be Christmas unless I have a batch waiting for her when she arrives to spend the holidays with us. Will she recognize a vegan substitute for her idea of a perfect holiday cookie? Stay tuned....

Cinnamon Bread Recipe

Recipe courtesy of Pioneer Woman Cooks

1 cup Milk
6 Tablespoons Butter
2-½ teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
2 whole Eggs
⅓ cups Sugar
3-½ cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
⅓ cups Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
Egg And Milk, Mixed Together, For Brushing
Softened Butter, For Smearing And Greasing
Preparation Instructions
Melt butter with milk. Heat until very warm, but don’t boil. Allow to cool until still warm to the touch, but not hot. Sprinkle yeast over the top, stir gently, and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
Combine flour and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar and eggs with the paddle attachment until combined. Pour in milk/butter/yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the other half and beat until combined.
Switch to the dough hook attachment and beat/knead dough on medium speed for ten minutes. If dough is overly sticky, add 1/4 cup flour and beat again for 5 minutes.
Heat a metal or glass mixing bowl so it’s warm. Drizzle in a little canola oil, then toss the dough in the oil to coat. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and set it in a warm, hospitable place for at least 2 hours.
Turn dough out onto the work surface. Roll into a neat rectangle no wider than the loaf pan you’re going to use, and about 18 to 24 inches long. Smear with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle evenly over the butter-smeared dough. Starting at the far end, roll dough toward you, keeping it tight and contained. Pinch seam to seal.
Smear loaf pan with softened butter. Place dough, seam down, in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix a little egg with milk, and smear over the top. Bake for 40 minutes on a middle/lower rack in the oven.
Remove from the pan and allow bread to cool. Slice and serve, or make cinnamon toast or French toast with it.
Yummy!

BREAD!

I will go to extraordinary lengths in order to make my cooking blog the the best it can possibly be. Working with dough has always been one of my downfalls in the culinary arena. Here I am a young senior, totally afraid of dough. Yeast is tricky, kneading requires way more skill than I seem to possess, and getting bread to rise a miracle power I'm apparently sadly lacking. And yet, I continue with longings to be the kind of cook who goes in and makes bread for her family every morning. Isn't that in the Proverbs 31 description of the perfect woman?

Keenly aware of my failings in the bread making/working with doughs departments, I spared no expense and had one of my readers flown all the way from New Haven Connecticut to my home here in San Diego. This young woman is co-author of her own highly rated cooking blog and known for her proficiencies with bread. My original plans were to fly both the em AND the am of Emandam in for this cooking venture but budget and other logistical complications arose. To be more specific, Am chose to spend the holiday season with her Beloved Carnivore. Whatever.

My kitchen has been filled with the aromas of baking bread since the day Em arrived. Working under her able tutelage, I've made vegan wheat bread and a very yummy cinnamon raisin bread. And all of it has tasted amazing. Even the vegan bread is completely edible to humans not possessed of a desire to ignore all food groups minus grass, nuts, and berries.

Fake Fried Chicken

I have a chicken recipe that is a staple in my home. One of the best compliments I ever received when serving this dish came when my Aunt Els couldn't believe it wasn't the traditional West Virginia fried chicken.

Ahh...fried chicken. The standard Sunday dinner of my childhood. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I've sat down to a plate of that fried chicken along with mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls and some kind of wonderful dessert. Even writing these words bring back so many happy memories of times spent with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and close family friends. What a precious legacy of women who could cook and family who were eager to eat all that they made.

There's nothing special about this recipe - though Aunt Els has complained that she can't duplicate my result of crispy covering for the chicken. While I wouldn't label chicken cooked in butter as a health recipe, I do think it comes out less fat laden than the traditional West Virginia deep frying method.

My daughter recently traveled to Europe and brought back some Hungarian paprika. For any of you poor deluded souls who don't already know this fact, hungarian paprika is highly prized among cooks. The wanna-be culinary snob in me absolutely loves being able to add an international flavor to my ever-so-simple standard chicken recipe. Hillbilly meets exotic.

Normal people can buy a cut up chicken and bake the pieces in this easy coating. If you have or are cooking for someone with Stoops Picky Eater Syndrome, you'll have to buy only chicken legs, as that's the only part of the chicken acceptable for human consumption.

FAKE FRIED CHICKEN

1 T. margarine or butter ( you could possibly even use some kind of Pam coating - I've just never cared to try it this way)
2/3 cup bisquick
1- 1/2 t. paprika
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Melt butter in pan. Mix Bisquick, paprika, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add chicken, a few pieces at a time. Shake to coat pieces, then place in the pan. Bake 425 for 35 minutes on 1 side. Turn chicken pieces. Bake another 30 minutes.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
6 T. butter or margarine, softened (I use unsweetened butter)
1 egg
1 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Cream sugar, shortening and butter until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla: beat well. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into creamed mixture. Cover and chill at least three hours. Working with half the dough at a time, on a lightly floured surface, roll to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters into desired shapes. (Tim and Joy gave me a wonderful set of cookie cutters I love using from year to year. You'll have to find your own.) Place on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 until set but not browned - about 8 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

If you're going to frost or paint the cookies that step comes after they come out of the oven and cool. If you're cranking out massive amounts of cookies and want to forego the whole time consuming frosting step, put the colored sprinkles on before baking cookies.

The key to good sugar cookies is knowing when to take them out of the oven. Too soon and they wind up doughy, gooey, and somewhat unpalatable. Too long and you have cute, colorful rocks to eat. My technique is to bring them out of the oven the minute the edges have set, then leave them on the sheet for a minute or so more, allowing the hot cookie sheet to continue setting the cookies to perfection.

The History of My Sugar Cookies

Back when the world was new, I was a career woman, living on my own, working at the University of Arizona. I believe my work ethic was valued among my peers - you could give me a job and know that it would be done with all due haste and to the very best of my ability. Bosses loved me, co-workers sought my counsel, and most saw me as the go-to girl on the job.

Unless it was time for a potluck or other food related gathering. At this point in my life, I either ate out (courtesy of whatever guy I was dating at the time) or feasted on gourmet offerings such as Campbell's soups and frozen pot pies. Summing things up, let's just say I was no Emily. (And lest there be any misconceptions, let me also add there was a whole lot more of the soup and pot pies than dinners out with dates.)

I didn't even have to hope that the rolls/drinks/paper goods/plastic utensils slots would be available for big company food fests - my name would automatically be inserted into one of those no-brainer catagories on whatever list was being circulated through our third floor office. People knew me and they knew my skill set when it came to cooking.

EXCEPT FOR THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY. The party to beat all parties when the stakes were high and the food mighty fine. For whatever long forgotten reason, I decided to make sugar cookies one year. And not just any sugar cookies. Mine were works of art, worthy of being framed and hung on the walls of some snooty art gallery that didn't exist in Tucson, Arizona during the mid to late seventies.

I used incredibly intricate cookie cutters with vast detailing inside. Santas, ornaments, angels, nutcrackers - and a whole host of others I can no longer remember. What a pain these were to work with! For each carefully delineated plastic line, I had to use just the right amount of light flouring to keep the cookie cutter from sticking into the dough while still pressing deep enough to create every fully carved out detail. And that was only the beginning of the tedious, time-consuming labor of love that went into these cookies!

Using an egg yolk paint and food coloring, I then carefully painted each cookie in dazzling full-color beauty. This step took up literally hours of my time, using a tiny watercolor brush. And, as if that wasn't enough work, once the cookies began baking, I had to take them out of the oven midway and touch up the places where expansion of the dough had created blank spots on my small doughy canvasses.

The end product was dazzling. Beautiful. Spectacular. Totally awe-inspriing when viewed ever so nicely arranged on a large cookie plate. People in the office would talk about these cookies for months ahead of time. By about mid-November I had co-workers sidling up to me in a spy vs. spy stealthy kind of way, asking if i'd make a batch just for them. Depending on how much I liked the petitioners, I'd grant these requests. This meant many, many nights slaving over a batch of elaborately painted cookies because heaven forbid I should give anyone something that wasn't absolutely perfect. (This was before I had kids and lost a lot of my neurotic compulsion to do everything faultlessly.)

Speaking of kids, that's when my Sugar Cookies as Art obsession ended. After Tim came along, I found a whole lot less time for things such as stamping out intricate cookies and then spending a gazillion hours painting and touching them up. Guess what i discovered - simple form cookie cutters were a swell idea! And colored sugar sprinkled liberally over the dough made cookies that tasted pretty darned good, even if they didn't look quite as professional. Bonus: even little children (my own) could help with sprinkles. (One of my readers will no doubt be able to recall a rather hilarious video we have of Tim on Sprinkle Duty. He was about 2 years old and having a bit of difficulty mastering the nuances of measured, even sprinkling.)

You know the oddest thing about the whole sugar cookie history lesson? I honestly think the original recipe I used for the Masterpiece Cookies wasn't even all that tasty! Or maybe it's just that substituting brushed egg yolk with lots of sugar sprinkles can't help but enhance the taste of the cookie. I'll take taste over artistic value any day of the week.